Effect of electron irradiation on properties of chemically deposited TiO2 nanorods

TiO2 nanorods were grown by using soft chemical route at room temperature on glass substrate and subjected to electron beam irradiation after annealing for 2 h in air at 723 K. The effect of annealing and high energy (7 MeV) electron beam irradiation on the structural, morphological, wettability, optical and electrical properties of the films has been investigated. The electron bombardment leads amorphous to crystalline structure, increase in length and diameter of nanorods, increase in contact angle from 2° to 9°, red shift of 0.24 eV in the band gap and decrease in room temperature electrical resistivity from 106 to 103 of TiO2 nanorods. The changes in the material property are ascribed to the effect of electron beam irradiation.